Thursday is an off day on the baseball calendar, but it is also an important day. It is the 32nd anniversary of the debut on NBC of ‘The Golden Girls,’ one of the classic television shows of our time.
Thank you for being a friend! The Golden Girls premiered on this day in 1985. pic.twitter.com/vE8mIX8A04
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 14, 2017
The show holds a special place in my heart not only because I used to watch it every week with my mom — the only television show she watched more was ‘Murder, She Wrote.’ — but also because of the connection to the 1988 Dodgers.
The opening theme to ‘The Golden Girls’ is a song called ‘Thank You For Being a Friend,’ which if you’ve heard it is a very familiar tune. My ears perked up even more after the final out of Game 5 of the 1988 World Series when, after Orel Hershiser struck out Tony Phillips to win the championship, the PA system at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum began playing that song.
You can hear it here if you listen closely behind the words from Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola on the NBC broadcast.
For me, this song and by extension that show, will always be a pal and a confidant.